The There There explores the impact of existing and emergent technologies on the relationship of two characters, K and M, over the course of their lives. Beginning in the present day when they meet in college, the play follows them over forty-five years into the near future, when they are in their sixties and have a child. Though both characters attempt to end the relationship at one time or another, the eternal...
The There There explores the impact of existing and emergent technologies on the relationship of two characters, K and M, over the course of their lives. Beginning in the present day when they meet in college, the play follows them over forty-five years into the near future, when they are in their sixties and have a child. Though both characters attempt to end the relationship at one time or another, the eternal ties permeating the thousands of emails, pictures, and network associations that exist in the digital world – made manifest theatrically in intermezzos that precede each scene – prevent them from ever fully severing their emotional connection. The mourning process involved in saying goodbye is never able to complete itself.
As the play moves forward, these technologies expand into holograms and individualized computers located within the body, which bring the two even closer. The piece concludes with a glimpse at the life of their child, who is leaving home to enter college, the very age we found K and M in at the play’s opening. Though the child and his generation have rejected their parents’ obsession with digital gadgetry, they appear to suffer from the same emotional uncertainties. Are the illusions generated by technology influencing the way we grieve and love, or are they only a parallel to the assorted illusions we have always permitted ourselves to form about the people we care about?